Suenell, I don't know if you'll ever see this, but you can delete a synth by going to your profile page when you're signed into your account, hovering above the upper right hand corner of a synth's 'card' and clicking the 'x'.
By all means come back and try again. Try circling a single bloom or a tree trunk next time with about the same number of photos that you used in this synth and I think you'll get the hang of things.

So... what exactly is this ball?
Also, are these stills taken from a video or a still camera?
Just a note... Photosynth works best with stationary objects. In this scene, although you have two solid objects (the background and the ball), they are moving independent of each other. One of Photosynth's main assumptions is that everything remains stationary, so it might work better for you if the ball stayed still and you moved around it.
As things stand now, Photosynth tries to track both the background and the ball and ends up a little confused.

Hi, lookout, don't know if or when you'll read this, but it would be great to see your photos of the troll added to the model over on PhotoCity.
Click here to check it out:
http://photocitygame.com/map.php?id=18

As a side note: others have said it elsewhere, but it's quite true and very funny that when shooting a synth like this you get some very inquisitive looks from your fellow human beings. People just don't know what to make of it or what can have come over you, especially if you're hurrying.
Four brave souls had the courage to approach me and ask me exactly why I was taking so many pictures and I happily gave them as brief an explanation as I thought they were after. Happily none of them were giving off an air of disapproval and|or attired in official looking security uniforms.

The dome was a gamble, for sure. I had shot very nearly everything else at that point, if I'm remembering correctly, and felt like I should probably take it easy on any further shots inside this central lobby, but as soon as I saw the reconstruction, I wished that I'd taken more. I had some real doubt that Photosynth would be able to track it as it is largely symmetrical, but it did very well with what I gave it. I'll certainly have to take more care to connect all four corners to the dome next time.
Overhead view is very handy (especially for navigating quickly to a particular area), but for my more adventurous viewers, turning the photos off in the Direct3D viewer (use the [P] key) and using the [W] [A] [S] [D] keys to move around and [{] [L] [:] ["] keys to look around is hard to beat, as long as your video card has the right stuff.
You can use keyboard controls in the Silverlight viewer too, but it's not as fast + it turns off 1/2 the points while you move.

Hey there! Thanks for the avid exploration and exclamation.
I totally relate to the feeling of, "...there are *not enough* pictures in this synth."... as you may well imagine. =)
The great thing about this building is that it is pretty nearly completely panelled in marble, giving each part a unique texture which the synther can quickly learn. The difficulty is that all light sources are reflected in the marble.
There's definitely part of me that looks at how densely the floor reconstructs when I barely glanced over it (like around the couches) and thinks to itself, "Hmm. Look at how easy it would be to build the entire floor and steps.". The enemy there is naturally the RAM limit. The best computer that I have at my disposal only has 4GB of RAM, running 64bit Windows 7.
I'm also curious to see what I would get if I shot only photos completely perpendicular to the walls except perhaps one orbit per corner.

Just a suggestion, Mark, but you may want to fill in the 'Author' tags of your photos with Adobe Bridge, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, or Windows Live Photo Gallery. That way your CC Attribution license displays your name next to it.

Fascinating work, Sir Ivar. I'm glad to see someone creating synths with such precision.
For my fellow visitors: After you click on part of the synth, tap the [P] key to switch to point-cloud-only mode, then hold the [S] key to back away from the surface of the ground. Once you back up a little the point cloud looks almost solid - pretty incredible!

It's a solid outward looking panoramic circle, but try also adding circles of photos all the way around different objects in the scene, looking inward at the object. You used 22 photos in your outward circle here. That amount should also be appropriate for inward looking circles around objects as well.
Let me know if you see success using this method.

You could always hardwire the slideshow to play in filename order in the synth editor. Switching on 'Photo up', rather than 'World up' might not be such a terrible idea either.
I love that shallow water... such amazing colours.

I completely agree. My ethernet cable/data bus usually can't load all the tiles in time for long paths, so the basic result was just bumping into a bunch of pixelated garbage between highlight A and highlight B. This new technique sidesteps that entire mess and retains context very beautifully and clearly.
It must look especially pretty on top of a map.
All the best to you and yours,
Nate

Thanks for noticing! That's a feature that shipped with the last major web site release a few weeks ago. When it's a long path between two highlights, and we think it will be less confusing to go up and back down, we do that.

Matt, have the highlights always done the flying up to overhead and swooping back down to the destination? I'm thinking it came with one of the most recent updates to the SL3 viewer, but am wondering if I just overlooked it for a while.
Moving from the '5-speed' highlight to the 'Seat' exemplifies the transition I'm talking about. I was under the impression that until the past month or so, you always took the path approach.
How is it determined when to use the swing up and over transitions?

Hi, Baylee. Thanks for asking. A Photosynth is a collection of photographs that have been stitched together in 3D space. It's great when you need to capture both the greater context and the small details of something. You can embed them on a web site and share them via e-mail.
To get started, take about 30 pictures of your favorite object from all angles. Hold the camera steady or do it outside in the middle of the day when you have lots of natural light. Then click on the "Create" button on photosynth.net, and follow the instructions to create your own.
Enjoy!

To the best of my knowledge, ICE is only for panoramas.
For cases where the camera moves (or a subject rotates while the camera stays still but the backdrop doesn't move) I don't think ICE will provide very good results at all.

Here's the link for trying it out, if you're interested:
( http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/ )
I love what Photosynth does in terms of letting us break free from standing in one point, but for standing in one place and getting the wrap around view, a true panorama stitcher is hard to beat.

Can I assume that this was all taken with a tripod?
If so, have you tried putting this collection into Microsoft Research ICE and exporting to HD View? I'd be curious to know if it could handle the different zoom scales correctly.

When you upload a bunch of photos to Photosynth, it doesn't know whether they are right-side-up or not, but because it is matching details from each one to the other photos, if most of them are right side up, Photosynth can actually tell which direction the photos which were uploaded on their side or some other funny angle are meant to be viewed at, based on the 'up' of the majority of other photos. This is the default arrangement and is known as 'World Up' - an average of the 'up' of all the photos in the main synth group.
In your case, all the photos have been uploaded right-side up, but because Photosynth didn't find really strong connections between a particular pair of photos, individual photos sometimes are displayed tipped on their sides because perhaps Photosynth only matched details in one corner to the rest of the photos. By telling Photosynth to ignore 'World Up' and display each photo at its own 'up' that it was uploaded with, you can straighten it out.

Thanks! Trying to find time to get a few more like this built up. By the way - by changing it to "Photo Up", what am I telling it to do? I changed that setting on this synth, but since I didn't know what I was looking for, I can't say that I really saw a difference....

Nice shots! The synther got some really nice transitions and a couple of really off-balance ones. =)
You might want to consider changing this synth to "Photo Up" under the 'Advanced' tab and 'Orientation' category in the synth editing controls. Try it and see if you like it better anyway.
Keep up the good work!

Hey, this is a great leap forward in your synthing. Great job!
Your method seems to work pretty well here. There's a nice amount of distance between each shot so the virtual camera makes satisfying swoops as I transition from one photo to the next. Just be sure to rotate all your photos right side up before uploading. =)
While you're at it, you might consider filling in the 'Author' field of your photos' tags in a program like Windows Live Photo Gallery or Microsoft Pro Photo Tools. If you do, whatever you filled in will appear next to the license symbol on the lower left corner of the synth as well as on the Photo Credits when people see your synth on Bing Maps.
If you're after a photo-centred mindset with synths, your current technique is perfect, but if you decide to shoot for pointclouds someday, please look up my 'Orbital Propulsion (Gravity Assist)' synth. I haven't found a way to top that method yet for super detailed pointclouds.
Hope to see more soon!

My 20D has almost the same IR response, but the meter won't register the IR light, so you have to meter manually. Still, it's usable.
I'm still itching for an IR converted camera. It would be nice to have the higher shutter speeds you could get with an honest to goodness IR converted camera. Among other things it would let me do IR photography from the air!
Ah well, in any case I'd like to play with it a little more. 48% synthy, not because of the IR, but because my technique wasn't all that hot. I'll give it another go and try to post another one soon.
Tom

It's a normal camera, actually, a Canon Powershot A650 IS. It's not even converted to the near-IR. But it works!
Practically all visible light digital detectors are sensitive to the near-IR. (Actually, most are MORE sensitive in the near-IR than in the visible.) But for normal photography that IR response isn't really wanted. It makes for washed-out looking photos with weird color shifts. So most digital cameras have an IR blocking filter in front of the detector. In some cameras it's quite efficient, basically making the camera unusable for IR photography. In others it's weaker. I had an older Nikon Coolpix 950 that had a really weak IR blocker, and was great for IR photography. The filter in the A650IS is stronger, but it's still possible.
I use a Hoya R72 filter. It's a long-pass filter that lets most of the light through that's longer than 720nm. Wide open at ISO 800, it makes for 1/10sec exposure in broad daylight. Camera still meters, though.

I love that you actually tried out shooting infrared. It's still an almost completely unexplored branch of synthing.
I guess the camera still stores the data in an RGB format or is whatever sensor you're using different to your usual camera's sensor?

I experimented a bit with the possibility of doing such a synth, but I found that regular food dye in water can't work. It spreads out way too fast, and if you let it sit for a bit to calm down, it mostly just keeps spreading slowly until it's evenly dispersed.
The only thing I can thing of that might help is using some kind of thicker more viscous liquid, but I have nothing like that to experiment with, and nothing in particular comes to mind. It is certainly a wonderful idea. If only we could find a chemist of some sort that might help us out with the prep work.

Photosynth liked the serviette. :)
Beautiful shots of the tea, by the way. I love photography of liquid.
I keep wanting to see someone synth dye that's been dropped into a container of water/colourless fluid. The way that it splashes outward when first dropped in and then hangs, largely in stasis, seems perfect to synth and like it would yield a fantastic point cloud. I'm thinking something like this ( http://vonvonz.deviantart.com/art/h2o-Color-Dance-5633618 ) in point cloud form.

Making a copy of the wide shot and cropping out the subject of the close up gives Photosynth permission to scan that full area of the cropped detail for details when you re-synth. (This is assuming your wide angle photos are higher than 2 megapixels, which I'm sure they are.) The cropped piece is guaranteed to match its parent image and if all goes well, it will also match the close up, thus providing a way to tie the environment back together.
This 'trick' can help you in cases where there is simply no possibility of taking more coverage but it is much more desirable to simply be able to take interim photos manually.
As I'm sure you may have already noticed, the second icon from the right will take you to 'grid view' of your photos and will help you quickly gain an understanding of how your photos have grouped and thus which areas need 'bridge' photos in order to tie together.
Sorry to overload you with information. :) In any case, I still enjoyed your synth.

Orphaned images happen when the nearest photo(s) to the orphaned photo(s) are simply at too different an angle or distance for Photosynth to recognise them as the same object. In cases where the subject matter is something fairly resistant to change (e.g. a brick wall) you can simply go back and snap a few more photos in between the two photos that you wish to marry together. Making a new synth with these included should do the trick.
In cases where the subject is unavailable for reshooting (e.g. the flowers have withered, or you are no longer in vacation where the photos were taken) you can try a bit of a trick. Where you have a wide shot and a close up that you hope to match together you can make a copy of the wide angle photo and crop out the part that matches the subject of the close up. The reason this works is that although Photosynth uploads your full resolution photos, it only uses 2 megapixel versions of them to do the matching (for performance reasons).

Thanks Nathanael, this is my first synth so not too sure why some of the photos have been orphaned? Or are not quite where I would expect them? However the software is amazing and I can’t wait to synth some more images.